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Intimations of a Naumachia:

The Roman Amphitheatre of Saintes

[image ALT: A group of arched stone ruins around a pond, with a massive Gothic tower in the background to the right. It is a view of the remains of the Roman amphitheater in Saintes, western France, after a severe rainstorm.]

The remains of the amphitheater after a heavy rain.

Photograph © Damon Allen Davison; by kind permission.
Click on the photographer's signature to send him e‑mail; anywhere else to see this photo fullsize in another window.

This unusual view gives you some idea of how a naumachia might have looked: those mock naval battles the Romans held in amphitheatres or circuses specially flooded for the purpose. For the basic details of the naumachia, see this article of Smith's Dictionary; and careful! I'm not saying there were naumachiae in this amphitheatre: there almost certainly weren't.

[image ALT: A pond in the foreground; on the shore in the background, a group of arched stone ruins around a pond, with a massive Gothic tower behind them. It is a view of the remains of the Roman amphitheater in Saintes, western France, after a severe rainstorm.]

Photograph © Damon Allen Davison; by kind permission.

Images with borders lead to more information. The thicker the border, the more information. (Details here.)

Thanks to Damon Allen Davison for providing these two photographs taken by him.

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Smith's Dictionary:
Naumachia

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